In one of the boldest media plays Australia has seen, Nine Entertainment is mounting a bid to seize every last NRL broadcasting right.

It could simultaneously supercharge its streaming platform Stan and finally remove rugby league from Foxtel's grip after 30 years of dominance.

The pitch was no bureaucratic formality.

Nine's chief executive Matt Stanton walked into the room alongside broadcast and streaming boss Amanda Laing to face Australian Rugby League Commission chair Peter V'landys and departing NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo on Tuesday, according to the Australian Financial Review.

V'landys has made no secret of his ambitions: he wants a five-year deal from 2028 worth $4 billion, a figure that would shatter Australia's sports broadcasting record and eclipse the AFL's seven-year broadcasting deal that kicked off in 2025.

The NRL's existing deal delivers $2 billion across five years, $400 million annually, of which Nine currently contributes $130 million.

The new arrangement Nine is chasing would be worth considerably more than its own market capitalisation of $1.5 billion.

Nine currently holds only the free-to-air rights.

There remains a live possibility that Nine and Foxtel end up at the same table again, as they are today; there is another path, perhaps the most intriguing.

If Nine were to sweep the rights, it could fundamentally reshape the economics of Australian streaming.

Stan and Kayo, long rumoured as merger candidates, would face entirely new commercial logic, potentially accelerating a consolidation the industry has speculated about for years.

At a press conference on Monday, called to address Abdo's resignation and his move to Tennis Australia, V'landys declined to signal that a streaming carve-up was inevitable.

"Everything's perfect for us to get the best broadcast deal ever. But as I've said all along, it's not about the money. It's about making sure our fans can afford the subscription," he said.

"We're not going to make the cost prohibitive, so the greatest negotiation is not how much we get, it's how much it's going to be charged back to the fan.

"Because any person, any broadcaster will naturally want to recoup whatever they invest in broadcast, because they're not there to make a loss, they're there to make a profit."

Amazon's Prime Video is understood to be planning a bid, though whether it wants a slice of streaming rights or the whole package remains to be unclear.

MST Marquee analyst Fraser McLeish laid out the stakes plainly.

"Nine has plenty of experience in the subscription sports segment with Stan Sport and will have a good understanding of what the pay TV rights are worth and how to monetise them. However, bidding for all the rights would be a significant commitment and a very ambitious move," McLeish told AFR.
 
"It will all depend on how aggressive the bidding gets. We would hope that Nine will only bid up to a level that makes commercial sense and where it is confident that it can make a reasonable return.
 
"We do expect that investors will have concerns about Nine making such a large commitment.
 
And if the gamble pays off? "If it does win all the rights, then the company is going to need to do a good job explaining the business case to the market."
 
In other words, Nine's pitch to V'landys was just the opening act.